Round-the-Clock Purple and Gold

Before Game 7, an update from Lakers' final shootaround of 2009-10

June 17, 2010 | 11:55
am

Here's the word from El Segundo, where the Lakers held their final shootaround of the 2009-10 season just a few hours before they will head to Staples Center to get dressed and pressed for Thursday's Game 7 bout against the Celtics.

Only Lakers Coach Phil Jackson was made available to reporters, so we'll do this quick-hit style:

-- Lakers center Andrew Bynum, who has struggled with a sore right knee, got some therapy Thursday morning and should be good to go for the game, Jackson said.

-- Jackson said he doesn't feel any anxiety about coaching in his first NBA Finals Game 7, noting that the other Game 7s he has played in helped prepare him for this.

-- Asked what he would tell his team before the game, Jackson said: "Just play with the same energy you played with in the last game. If you can summon that type of energy, that's what we want."

-- Jackson said the absence of Celtics center Kendrick Perkins, who won't play in Game 7 after tearing right knee ligaments in Game 6, will affect the Lakers most not on offense, but on defense.

"Depending on whether it would be Glen Davis or Rasheed Wallace [in the game], that's two very different players," Jackson said. "One is a three-point shooter, the other is an interior guy who is going to rebound and drive to the basket. So, we have to be aware of the fact of what the difference is when they set picks."

-- And Jackson said he expects the unexpected. "I think there's always something that's going to pop out in a game like this that you have to be prepared for," he said.